Projects #008 - "I used to design for GODS!"

The Oscars are over! Plus, INCREDIBLES!

Project Updates 2/24-3/2/25

Welcome back. Meaty updates today! Let’s check in on last week’s poll!

Closer than I expected! But the time has passed. The most evil show of all time will be subjecting a WHITE child to all of this gruesomeness, THANKS.

Pictured: an insane liar

Film & TV

My heart stopped when I saw her dress. SHE WORE BLUE VELVET!!!

The Oscars have happened! We’re all done! I’m very happy for Sean Baker and Mikey Madison. Moving on.

Finishing Franchises

Bridget Jones

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)
Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016)
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025)

I’d seen the original ages ago, of course, but had always heard the sequels stunk. This is true for Edge of Reason, which fails pretty much on every level, but I found Bridget Jones’s Baby quite moving and getting at something real. Bridget feels like she has grown and changed, but she’s still Bridget! This authenticity continues in this year’s Mad About the Boy, which features Bridget as an excellent mother navigating widowhood (Mark Darcy having exploded in the Sudan). It also features Chiwetel Ejiofor in a role actually worth his time, an astounding rarity. Check it out on Peacock! Can’t believe Peacock has survived this long!

52 Films by 52 Women

12. Podnieks on Podnieks. A Witness to History (2025) dir. Anna Viduleja & Antra Cilinska

Please note: Bridget Jones 2 & 3 are 10 and 11 on the woman list, but I already wrote about them. These categories can easily overlap. The power of women. Watched this at the Boston Baltic Film Festival where my friend Josh was moderating.

Misc. Films

Crossing Delancey (1988) dir. Joan Micklin Silver (rewatch)

Vimeo link. Rewatched this modern classic to prepare for a chat with the pickle man himself, Peter Riegert! He’s a real class act.

Simon Killer (2012) dir. Antonio Campos

Kanopy. Kind of not a real movie, but I had heard it starred Brady Corbet and Mati Diop, so I had to check it out. Eh!

It is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives (1971) dir. Rosa von Praunheim

Brattle debut. Nothing has changed in how gay guys are since the ‘70s!

Tough Guys Don’t Dance (1987) dir. Norman Mailer

Library DVD. Baller. Ryan O’Neal disgustingly hot. Ordered the Blu-Ray while we were watching.

Tangerine (2015) dir. Sean Baker (rewatch)

I am one of the Oscars

Coolidge. Razmik getting so mad the new prostitute doesn’t have a penis felt like something I’d never seen in a film before. And it’s hilarious! Congrats once again to Mr. Baker!

Is It Easy to Be Young? (1986) dir. Juris Podnieks

Vimeo. Josh tells me this film played a huge role in the fall of the Soviet Union.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) dir. David Lynch (rewatch)

HFA on 35mm with Sabrina Sutherland in attendance. My first Lynch watch since his passing. Brutal to watch on the big screen. Thank you David.

The Fugitive (1993) dir. Andrew Davis

So crazy that this also happened to Milhouse. Joey Pants has a great sweater!

Anime

Dragon Ball Daima (2024-2025)

Spoilers I guess

As the final Dragon Ball project Toriyama worked on before his death, I felt an obligation to watch. Unfortunately, Daima turned out to be a big slog, an attempt to redo GT or perhaps bring certain GT elements into the ‘canon’ (pictured above). If this had just been a movie, I’d be more forgiving. Twenty episodes of mostly slow travel and few fights? Come on now. RIP Toriyama. Hope nothing untoward happens with the series…

TV

ER Season 3 (1996-1997)

Continues to be the greatest TV show ever… I am so used to good TV ignoring or underserving its Black characters, so it is a relief that Dr. Benton continues to be incredibly well written and acted by Eriq La Salle. Carol got a great character arc this year too, and Mark got his ass beat for being racist. Everyone wins!

Best First Time Watches, February 2025

5. It’s My Turn (1980)

4. To Sleep with Anger (1990)

3. Tough Guys Don’t Dance (1987)

2. Taxi Zum Klo (1980)

1. Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)

Reading

Books

Vantage Points: On Media as Trans Memoir by Chase Joynt

Eventually I am going to read a trans memoir I can artistically grasp!

Comedy

Saw Meg Stalter perform at the Wilbur. She is so naturally funny it makes up for the fact that she didn’t really tell normal jokes. She brought a gay guy named Aaron onto stage to do a scene and he was trying way too hard to be funny. The entire crowd turned on him. I imagine he was taken out on his way back to Dorchester.

Meg also asked anyone wearing a mask to come on stage so we could vote to determine who was the “most random”. The winner revealed that she had had cancer, and Meg looked like she wanted to vomit. Awesome time.

Hank Happenings

Hank got all dressed up for the ceremony!

Pixar Project #006 - THE INCREDIBLES (2004) dir. Brad Bird

Before we start, let’s take a look at the Pixar films thus far. What stands out to you?

If it’s that Nemo is the only summer release at this point, yes, but not that. It’s the total control Brad Bird has over The Incredibles as director and writer, essentially Pixar’s first auteur film. Brad Bird, who cut his teeth on The Simpsons, joined Pixar after the financial failure of The Iron Giant, a perfect film. Like all animators, Bird is a lunatic perfectionist. He has a hand in every aspect of production, as close to a one man show that an animated film could be. The animators had him breathing over their shoulders the entire time. Was it worth it? Unfortunately, yeah. The Incredibles is incredible. It’s in the name!

With angular character designs, another great voice cast, Michael Giacchino’s unbeatable score, dynamic action and chase sequences, a mature story that doesn’t feel overly grim or toned down for children, and perfect pacing, The Incredibles is in many ways the platonic ideal of an animated film. Though some sequences have the airless problem, like when Helen calls Bob on the phone early on, that happens less often than I expected. This could be the first CGI animated film that looks better than it would have as a 2D film?

After a golden age of supers prologue, we catch up with Mr. Incredible/Bob Parr (Craig T. Nelson) at his life-draining insurance job. After many supers were sued for property and emotional damage (Mr. Incredible saves a suicide jumper who is NOT grateful), supers are made illegal and are forced into hiding.¹ Bob and his wife Helen/Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) are now regular everyday parents with three kids, Violet (Sarah Vowell, noted This American Life contributor and one of the best casting choices in Pixar history), Dash (Spencer Fox, now the lead guitarist of Charly Bliss), and Jack-Jack (baby). Violet can turn invisible and make force fields, employing this ability to hide from her crush Tony Rydinger. Tony has the ugliest design in the history of Pixar humans, and he is mercifully redesigned for the sequel. Dash², if you can believe it, is extremely fast. Everyone’s got their thing, but they have to keep their powers hidden. After a close call, Helen admonishes Dash and has an exchange that has been hotly debated since 2004. When Helen says “everyone’s special, Dash”, Dash replies “which is another way of saying no one is.”

Ewwww! Get Tony Rydinger away from my daughter Violet!

Is Brad Bird a Randian Objectivist? The greatest thread in the history of forums, locked by a moderator after 12239 pages of heated debate. I’m leaning towards no, but we will check in again after Ratatouille and Incredibles 2. While Bird clearly believes in the powers of the exceptional individual, he also calls this mindset into question with the motivations of our villain, Syndrome (Jason Lee, phenomenal). Syndrome, a burned fanboy of Mr. Incredible, has applied his genius intellect and amassed fortune to building weapons that put him on the level of supers. He has reached these heights by killing supers one by one on his Bond villain island, as Mr. Incredible discovers in a haunting sequence. Would a follower of John Galt frame a character like this as the villain? I think not.

Back to what makes the film so special. The short answer is ‘everything’, but we can go a bit wider than that. Bob Parr, hero of the working class, helps old ladies navigate insurance loopholes and nearly kills his awful boss (Wallace Shawn). When he’s let go, he hides this from Helen and instead takes up Mirage (Elizabeth Peña, gone too soon) on her enticing superheroic offer. Bob’s battle with the omnidroid reawakens his passion for life: he gets back into shape, spends more time with his kids, and is pulled by stretchy arms into the bedroom again and again. Things couldn’t be better! Of course, this can’t last. A new omnidroid gets the better of Mr. Incredible, and Syndrome hunts him to what he assumes is his death.

Helen can’t ignore the nagging voice in her head and goes to visit Edna Mode (Brad Bird), who in many ways has become the franchise’s mascot. Edna is great, a tiny woman with giant glasses and a crazy voice whose supersuits were of the highest quality. She is ridiculous, but never just comic relief. She comforts Helen in her own special way, smacking her with a magazine and showing her the brand new suits she has designed for her and her family. With a special GPS in hand, Helen borrows a plane from her old pilot friend³ and heads to Syndrome’s island. Naturally, the kids have stowed away, ready for battle.

After a harrowing missile sequence I’m sure you’re all familiar with, Helen, Violet, and Dash reach the island and hide out in a cave. The Incredibles does not hold hands when it comes to murder and death. Syndrome has killed a LOT of people during his quest to be the only super left standing. Mr. Incredible really thinks his family has been killed, and nearly snaps Mirage like a twig in his rage. Helen tells the kids that Syndrome’s guards will try to kill them if they get the chance, so they cannot give them that chance. The kids have to internalize this quickly as they escape into the jungle, harnessing their powers beyond anything they could have imagined before.

I’ll say this, the character models don’t look great when wet? That’s something Pixar doesn’t solve until like, Brave.

From here on out, every action sequence is sublime. Dash realizing he can run on water, Helen having to fight off guards while stretched between two locked doors, Violet harnessing her forcefield like a giant hamster ball, EVERYTHING works. I will think on this for a future issue, but Dash hitting a guy over and over until his visor comes off and he sees his eyes and hesitates is one of my top ten Pixar moments ever. It’s not a game! Dash realizes these are people too! Granted, they are trying to murder him, but it still gives him pause.

After the climactic battle⁴ against the giant Omnidroid in which each character takes turns saying “the remote controls the robot” just to make sure we get it, the Incredibles return home to find Syndrome kidnapping Jack-Jack. This is another moment where my mother gasped. Mercifully, Jack-Jack reveals his many latent abilities and escapes, leaving Syndrome to be sucked into an engine by his superfluous cape. No capes! The Incredibles live happily ever after, resuming their lives as heroes.

Bird accepting the Best Animated Feature Academy Award - where do I get that pin??

I don’t want to sound like the oft-dunked upon ‘animation is cinema’ tweet, but we could have so much more if animated movies were taken seriously for everyone. The Incredibles is a family film with real ideas, real stakes, refusing to talk down to kids. And every kid went fucking insane for it. I remember a two page ad in the Boston Globe that I showed off to my sixth grade class because I was insanely cool. The Incredibles is another cement block in the sturdy base of Pixar, a film I will always love and respect. Now, the sequel? See you then…

The Incredibles: Five out of five bouncing lamps

From the archives

I loooooved The Incredibles GameCube game despite constantly dying. I realize now this was not because I was a child, but because this was a crappy licensed game. They truly do not make these anymore - must just not be worth it at all! I’d also recommend the many, many bonus features on the DVD/blu-ray. So many fun deleted scenes and an episode of a fake Mr. Incredible/Frozone cartoon!

Mary Fran Corner

The Incredibles just works. It’s simple enough to stick — the plot, the music, the characters, the costumes — but also really hits you in the feels. It’s simultaneously a retro superhero comic book captured on the big screen and a satire of suburban life. Can you really have the best of both worlds? Maybe!

Mr. Incredible is a fallen superhero. Once overwhelmingly popular, he finds himself faced with so many lawsuits from rescues gone wrong that he’s forced to retire to suburbia with his wife, Elastigirl. It’s interesting watching this part of the movie as a lawyer. I could totally see a variation of this happening in the real world. Super heroes seem great but a lot of us have probably noted the damage they leave behind when defeating evil villains in the movies. And of course once some people learn they can sue super heroes for money, they’d take advantage of that the minute the opportunity arose, even though, surely, most of them would appreciate having their life saved at whatever cost.

But anyway — after retirement, Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl add Violet (who has the gift of invisibility), Dash (who can run at the speed of light), and baby Jack Jack (powers TBD) to their family. But the adjustment to suburbia has not been an easy one. In secret, Mr. Incredible continues to do some “light superheroing” with his best friend, Frozone (of the famous line “where’s my super suit”). One night, the pair defeats a robot, which we learn was created by Syndrome, a prior Mr. Incredible fan who turned into an evil mastermind after Mr. Incredible refused to let him become his boy wonder. Syndrome’s evil mastermind island headquarters would probably make most Bond villains drool.

But the true star of the movie is the iconic fashion designer Edna Mode. She is small but mighty and highly skilled at creating suits for superheroes. And I will never forget her speech as to why Mr. Incredible should never wear a cape.

The ending suggests that maybe this family of supers can have it all. Syndrome has been defeated, but a new villain makes his appearance at Dash’s track meet (because the parents are finally letting the kids be kids!). The family slip on their masks and reveal their super suits, suggesting that while they’re embracing “normal life” a little more positively now, they’re no longer repressing their calling to save the day.

This also qualifies as a cliffhanger, signaling that a sequel was on the horizon. And a sequel we got FOURTEEN YEARS LATER! But we’ll talk about that another time.

Links and Recommendations

• COAHC March post!

• Why wouldn’t you stop clicking through after the second or third murder?

• Fran’s Big Score!!!

• Hazel’s Lain game video that I return to often

• Support a video rental store opening in Western MA!

1. What happened to the villains? Did they go into hiding as well? Or did enough get captured that the remaining decided there was no point in continuing villainy? It’s entirely possible the government just took them out too. Much to consider!

2. I’ve always really liked Dash’s character design, with his wavy hair, big torso and stubby limbs. Great kid design!

3. Fun fact, Snug was originally going to be flying the plane and die when Syndrome blows it up! But that was a little too busy, and Bird spared his life, focusing on the family instead. Snug lives to see another day!

4. Sorry I haven’t said much about Frozone! He’s great, but this isn’t his story. I have a feeling he will take center stage in Incredibles 3 if that actually gets off the ground.